From Founders to Decorators, Facebook Riches  —  David Choe was paid in Facebook stock for paintings at the company's first headquarters.  His payout may be $200 million when it goes public.  Some investors may make billions of dollars.  —  SAN FRANCISCO — The graffiti artist …

Windows Phone 8 Preview  —  Thanks to a recent leak which has revealed some interesting information about the next major Windows Phone version, I can now publicly discuss Windows Phone 8 for the first time.  —  Windows Phone 8, codenamed Apollo, will be based on the Windows 8 kernel and not on Windows CE as are current versions.

Key Internet operator VeriSign hit by hackers  —  (Reuters) - VeriSign Inc, the company in charge of delivering people safely to more than half the world's websites, has been hacked repeatedly by outsiders who stole undisclosed information from the leading Internet infrastructure company.

Feds Seize Sports Streaming Domains in New Super Bowl Crackdown  —  US authorities began another round of domain name seizures a few hours ago, targeting several sports streaming sites.  —  Thus far, neither the Department of Justice nor Homeland Security's ICE unit have officially commented …

Peek killing off US email and Twitter devices after ‘lifelong service’  —  There's an old saying that eternal love lasts for two years.  Apparently, that also applies to Peek's bare bones email and Twitter devices, which launched in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

Exclusive: Amazon.com buys TeachStreet  —  TeachStreet founder Dave Schappell traveled from coast-to-coast over the past 12 months entertaining offers for his Seattle-based startup.  But, at the end of the day, he found the best fit right in his own backyard.

Sony posts $2 billion net loss for Q3 FY2011 results, forecasts $2.9 billion loss for full year  —  Sony has just posted its results for the third quarter of its 2011 fiscal year and as expected, the news is not great.  Sony posted an operating loss of $1.2 billion and net loss of $2 billion on revenue of $23.37 billion.

Avid Brings Its “Pro-sumer” Video Editing App to iPad  —  Avid, maker of high-end digital video and audio production tools, is bringing its “pro-sumer” video editing software to the iPad.  —  The app is available starting Thursday as part of the Avid Studio suite.

Introducing Reuters Social Pulse  —  Today we launched Social Pulse, our new social media hub on Reuters.com designed to show you the most talked-about news, companies and influencers across the Web.  —  The first thing you'll see on the page is the news most popular in Reuters social network.

ChangeWave Survey Shows Momentum for Amazon Going Forward  —  BETHESDA, MD - Despite investor disappointment at a surprising fourth quarter sales miss, a January consumer survey shows Amazon.com riding a wave of momentum in the new year, according to ChangeWave Research, a service of 451 Research.

StumbleUpon Kills Direct Links, iFrames Everything  —  StumbleUpon, who happens to be one of the more popular and successful social media sites with over 20 million users (doubling from 10 million in about a year and a half), recently launched one of the biggest redesigns I can remember …

Blogging Site Tumblr Makes Itself the News  —  The popular social blogging site Tumblr is hiring writers and editors to cover the world of Tumblr.  —  Chris Mohney, a senior vice president for content at BlackBook Media, will be the site's editor in chief.

HTC acknowledges some of its Android devices may leak Wi-Fi passwords  —  HTC has acknowledged a flaw in the way that some of its handsets handle specific Android requests may expose the security credentials on Wi-Fi networks they are connected to.  —  Researchers Chris Hessing and Bret Jordan found …

Apple grabs another gaming executive with appointment of Xbox Live marketing chief  —  Apple has named former Microsoft Product Marketing chief Robin Burrowes as the head of App Store Marketing for iTunes Europe, becoming the latest games executive to join Apple's ranks.

Android Can No Longer Be Ignored, And The Crunchies Prove It  —  While sitting at the Crunchies last night something became quite apparent: almost all the big guys — even the ones who were stubborn about it — are currently available on Android.  —  And what do you know?  They won at the Crunchies!